Michigan, Allegan County, Plainwell
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The Soule Memorial Fountain was built in 1907, donated by Mrs. Carrie Soule in memory of her late husband, George Gary Soule.
The fountain was destroyed in 1953 when a truck driver from the Grand Rapids Hide Company was on his way to the Murray Packing Co. (currently JBS Packerland in Gun Plain Township). The gentleman suffered a seizure at the main intersection of Plainwell, rear-ended a parked police cruiser pushing it into the fountain, destroying the fountain.
It was not until 1970 when the Jaycees spearheaded a fund raising program to replace the fountain which is here today. This fountain was built much closer to Hicks Park creating less of a traffic hazard. Because materials from the original fountain were hard to duplicate, a much simpler version was built. One unique feature of the new fountain is the fact that one of the original stones was located and reused, thus linking the past with the present.
(Notable Buildings) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
The Soule Memorial Fountain was built in 1907, donated by Mrs. Carrie Soule in memory of her late husband, George Gary Soule.The fountain was destroyed in 1953 when a truck driver from the Grand Rapids Hide Company was on his way to the Murray Packing Co. (currently JBS Packerland in Gun Plain Township). The gentleman suffered a seizure at the main intersection of Plainwell, rear-ended a parked police cruiser pushing it into the fountain, destroying the fountain.
It was not until 1970 when the Jaycees spearheaded a fund raising program to replace the fountain which is here today. This fountain was built much closer to Hicks Park creating less of a traffic hazard. Because materials from the original fountain were hard to duplicate, a much simpler version was built. One unique feature of the new fountain is the fact that one of the original stones was located and reused, thus linking the past with the present.
(Notable Buildings) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Built in the spring of 1882, the woolen factory was in operation until 1890. It was built under the direction of the United Order Board. Thomas Chamberlain, Bishop and President of the Board.
About 1872 Joseph Asay with his family settled about 3/4 mile west and a little south of this spot. Soon other homesteaders settled in the locality. Tom Jessup and Dan LeRoy erected a water power saw mill. A shingle mill was also placed on the stream. In 1887 a post office was established, Jerome Asay P.M. Here he kept for sale some groceries and hardware items. A log house was built for church services, James Dutton and Isaac Asay served as presiding elders. The building was also used for school and social activities. In 1892 the people became part of the Mammoth Ward eight miles north. By 1900 Asay Town was abandoned, because of the short growing seasons and long hard winters.
In 1872 Meltiar Hatch settled at the head of the Sevier River, near the junction of Mammoth and Asay Creeks. He engaged in stock raising and operated a water-power saw mill. Soon other settlers came. Land was surveyed and irrigation ditches dug. Lime was burned by Neils P. Clove. First school was in the Hatch home, Abram Workman teacher. 1888 the Asay post office was transferred to Hatch, Neils Ivor Clove, Postmaster. In 1892 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints organized Mammoth Ward, Aaron Asay, Bishop. 1899 the Ward name was changed to Hatch. 1901 to 1904, the town was moved to the present site under leadership of Bishop Rosmus Lynn.
The first public high school in the city and county, it was organized Dec., 1874, in the Second District School on College Hill, following classes started by then superintendent, Henry D. Wyatt, in his office a year earlier. First graduation was in 1879. After a fire in 1896, it moved seven times, finally moving to this site in 1963.
In 1608, Capt. John Smith mapped Opiscopank near here as an Indian town where a chief lived. Oddly, his narratives did not mention visiting the town or how he learned about it. In 1649, Ralph Wormeley patented 3,200 acres here that included “the Indian Townes of old & new Nimcock, bounded N.W. upon Rosegill Cr.” While the Rosegill plantation later became well known, historical records are silent on what became of the Nimcock Indians who lived at the former Opiscopank. Archaeological research found evidence of Middle to Late Woodland Indian habitation at several locations on the former Rosegill plantation.
Just south, between Put In Creek and Woodas Creek, lies the former glebe of Kingston Parish of the Church of England (now the Protestant Epsicopal Church). In 1665 the parish acquired the first parcel (455 acres) of glebe land to support its minister. After the Revolution and subsequent disestablishment of the Church of England, parishes gradually relinquished their property. In 1802 the General Assembly ordered all glebes sold. Kingston Parish auctioned off its glebe in 1810 to help the poor.
The resistance of Irene Morgan (1917-2007) to segregation led to an important court case. On 16 July 1944, Morgan refused to give up her seat on a Greyhound bus to a white passenger. After a struggle with Middlesex County sheriffs she was arrested. Convicted by the State, she appealed all the way to the United States Supreme Court with the help of Spottswood W. Robinson III and Thurgood Marshall, among others. In a landmark decision in 1946, the Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to enforce segregation laws on interstate carriers. This decision helped set precedent for the later battles the NAACP waged against segregation.
Near here stood Gloucester Hall (built ca. 1660s), where Bacon’s Rebellion effectively ended with the fatal illness of its leader, Nathaniel Bacon, in 1676. In 1684, this house served as the first Virginia residence of Royal Governor Francis Howard, baron Howard of Effingham, whose wife, Lady Philadelphia Pelham Howard, died there in 1685. Col. John Pate, a member of the Council of State, built the house on his 2,100-acre plantation, including 1,141 acres that his uncle Richard Pate had patented in 1650. Col. Thomas Pate inherited the plantation in 1672. Both Richard Pate and Col. Thomas Pate represented Gloucester County in the House of Burgesses.
In Aug. 1863, Confederate Navy Lt. John Taylor Wood, moving overland with boarding cutters carried on modified wagons and a contingent of 82 men, embarked on an expedition to attack Union ships. At Wilton Creek, Wood and his men repulsed forces from the Union gunboat General Putnam in a skirmish on 17 Aug. Shifting operations north to the Rappahannock River, his boarding parties surprised and captured Union gunboats, Reliance and Satellite, anchored off Windmill Point in an early morning raid on 22 Aug. The third raid of its kind by Wood, a grandson of Pres. Zachary Taylor, it was also the most successful.
Fort Nonsense is a conspicuous reminder of Mathews County's Civil War history. When war broke out, men between the ages of 21 and 45 were mustered for service in the 61st Virginia Militia Regiment. Company H became known as the Mathews Light Artillery. This unit, commanded by Capt. Andrew Armistead, was assigned to Starke's Battery on the Piankatank River. Company E, under Capt. Robert E. Hudgins, was mustered on October 31, 1861, and was sent to Gloucester Point. Both units disbanded when the Confederates abandoned Gloucester Point on May 4, 1862. Many other Mathews County men served in the 5th Virginia Cavalry, the 26th Virginia Volunteer Infantry, and the Confederate Navy.
Fort Nonsense today consists of two sections of earthworks divided by a road trace. Archaeological evidence suggests that the fort's parapet extended across present-day Routes 3 and 14 to reach the exiting natural obstacles. The northerly-facing section is an infantry redan, and the southerly work is a continuous parapet with two cannon emplacements within a redan. The existing road trace that separates Fort Nonsense's two components could be considered the fort's sally port.
Several Confederate companies were organized here during the war. The Mathews Light Artillery (formerly Co. H, 61st Virginia Militia) was organized in July 1861. On May 14, 1862, it was accepted into Confederate States service as Capt Andrew D. Armistead's Company Virginia Light Artillery. A detachment under Capt. Robert E. Hudgins served at Gloucester Point. Armistead’s company, reduced to 70 men, surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, with the Army of Northern Virginia. Capt. Gabriel F. Miller's Mathews Light Dragoons entered service on July 21, 1861. Designated Co. F, 5th Virginia Cavalry, by November 1862, it served “as couriers and rear guard … on the different marches through the Valley of Virginia.” Capt. Alexander James's Co. D, 26th Virginia Infantry, mustered into service on May 28, 1861, at Gloucester Point.
